Here's the latest for Wednesday, March 30th: Minneapolis officers won't be charged for shooting death of a black man; Toronto mourns former Mayor Rob Ford; President Obama commutes sentences of 61 drug offenders; San Diego Zoo welcomes a baby giraffe.

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The White House nuclear security summit this week will, for the first time, include a special session on how to ensure that terrorist groups like Islamic State do not get their hands on nuclear materials. At this year's summit, a biennial event, delegations from more than 50 nations will discuss evolving nuclear threats and ways to minimize and prevent them. VOA's White House correspondent Mary Alice Salinas has more.Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/washington-nuclear-security-summit/3261940.html

Wednesday on the NewsHour, the presidential candidates stump in Wisconsin and New York ahead of upcoming primaries. Also: A look at what’s driving Trump’s appeal, the past and future of U.S. policy in the Middle East, how a Colombian peace deal could impact the drug trade, the battle for conservation in Coachella Valley and decaying books tell the story of Slovakian Jews in the Holocaust.

The mercurial Shiite cleric, politician and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has commandeered a protest movement in Baghdad that is drawing resources from the fight against Islamic State, writes Yaroslav Trofimov.

In the apartment Reda Kriket rented in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil, police found some of the standard tools of terror — a cache of assault rifles and handguns, five stolen French passports, seven cell phones still in their packaging, and a single tear gas bomb, prosecutors said.

They also confiscated Tupperware containing 500 grams of the powerful explosive TATP, more than a kilo of industrial explosives, detonators and other electronics, they said.

More ominously, they found acetone and other chemicals, along with four cartons containing. . .

U.S. President Barack Obama is commuting the prison sentences of 61 people serving time for drug-related crimes. The White House says more than one-third of the inmates were serving life sentences. All of them were jailed for drug possession, intent to distribute or related crimes. A few also had firearms violations. In a letter to those receiving clemency, Obama said the power to grant pardons and commutations "embodies the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a...

Security agencies racing to break the web of Islamic State (IS) terror cells that have spread across the European continent are also bracing for another worrisome possibility - that the group will use guerrilla tactics honed in Syria and Iraq to carry out attacks on critical targets or infrastructure. Concerns have been heightened in recent days, most notably with the revelation that a laptop found during a raid connected to the suspects in the Brussels terror bombings contained images...

Less than three months into his presidency, Barack Obama looked out at the thousands of people packed into Prague's Hradcany Square and told them that as the only nation to ever use a nuclear weapon, the United States had a moral responsibility to work toward a world without them. "One nuclear weapon exploded in one city — be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague — could kill hundreds of thousands of people," he said. "And no...

President Barack Obama will host his fourth and final nuclear security summit in Washington this week with tons of loose nuclear material still not sufficiently secured and still potentially accessible to terrorists or other individuals with malicious intentions. The White House says that while it is impossible to quantify the likelihood of a nuclear attack by extremist groups, there are 2,000 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium with civilian and military...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Wednesday for "an ultimate resolution" of the two-decade-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia during talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the State Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Still reeling from attacks in Brussels and Paris, world leaders are wrestling this week with the chilling prospect of the Islamic State group or other extremists unleashing a nuclear attack on a major Western city....

Many observers of the Russo-Chinese relationship continue to believe that it is merely a marriage or axis of convenience, which will only last as long as it does not damage its two players’ other rational interests. This attitude clearly embodies the distinctive belief, particularly prevalent in the United States, that all governments—Moscow and Beijing included—are merely calculating Realists with no other motive. However, mounting evidence shows that this view fails to capture the growing closeness of Russian and Chinese positions on many global issues. Moreover, proponents of this perspective fail to see that China continues to make material concessions to Russia to keep it on China’s side, whereas Russia is also willing to take steps damaging to its relations with third parties in order to please China (see EDM, March 16).

Notably, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently urged both governments to strengthen communication and coordination in international security and on regional issues (presumably Korea, Southeast Asia, Japan, the Middle East and Ukraine) to achieve political solutions. He also reiterated that bilateral Sino-Russian cooperation plays a key role in safeguarding peace and stability in Asia and in the world more generally (China Daily, Xinhua, March 26). Beyond that, China’s Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli recently met with Gazprom head Alexander Miller and vowed to improve bilateral energy cooperation (Xinhua, March 22). To mollify Russia, China recently lent Gazprom $2.17 billion; and it appears that further loans to Russian energy companies as well as further Chinese investment in them will be forthcoming, thus representing a tangible manifestation of Chinese support for Russia against the West (see EDM, March 16). Indeed, China has already become the largest consumer of Russian crude oil (RT, March 14).

This cooperation is not only occurring in the energy sphere. China has now made advance payments for Russia’s high-tech S-400 surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile system, which it should begin receiving in 2017. While the specific missile that will be sold as part of the S-400 system has not yet been conclusively revealed, if it is the 40N6 model, it will provide China with the capability to cover a range of up to 400 kilometers. That will allow China to strike over all of Taiwan as well as reach targets as far as New Delhi, Calcutta, Hanoi, Seoul and all of North Korea. Armed with 40N6 missiles, Beijing’s S-400 launchers would also be able to fully protect the Yellow Sea and China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea. But even a shorter-range missile would represent a significant upgrading of China’s capability for anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) operations (TASS, March 21; The Diplomat, March 22). This will certainly upset the military balance in the region, which is not necessarily in Moscow’s interest. Yet, Russian defense expert Vasily Kashin, of the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technology, a think tank closely tied to the defense industrial complex, has simultaneously advocated for still more enhanced military cooperation with China. Furthermore, Kashin has advocated for strong Russo-Chinese industrial cooperation in electronics and mining (Xinhua, March 25).

On a different note, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced plans to continue its major military buildup on the Kurile Islands, the southernmost of which are claimed by Japan. In particular, Moscow is looking to deploy Bal-E and Bastion-P mobile coastal defense missile systems, anti-ship missiles, as well as Eleron-3 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Russia is also considering setting up a naval base on those islands (Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, March 25).

It should be clear to any observer that this announcement regarding the further militarization of the Kuriles is a direct insult to Japan and its leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The timing of the announcement is particularly damaging to Moscow-Tokyo ties, as Abe is planning to travel to Russia to try and bring about a normalization of bilateral relations based on a transfer of at least two of the Kuriles back to Japan. Evidently, Russia is not prepared to make any meaningful concessions to Japan at the expense of Moscow’s ties to Beijing—Tokyo’s arch-rival in East Asia. And this decision, represents a practical response by Russia to the closer coordination on regional security that Xi has called for. China and Russia’s joint opposition to the US decision to deploy the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea against a North Korean threat provides another notable example (see EDM, March 16). Similarly, with regard to competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, while Russia says it would like to see these issues resolved peacefully and is unlikely to be enthusiastic about Chinese dominance there, its officials have now moved to follow China’s line by calling for the United States to stay out of the region. Indeed, Russian authorities have even declared that US presence in the South China Sea could constitute a threat to Moscow (RIA Novosti, December 8, 2015; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, FBIS SOV, January 7, 2015).

Given all these signs of ever-closer rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing, even at the expense of their other interests, is it really possible—let alone useful—to continue to cling to the belief that the Sino-Russian relationship is merely a temporary marriage of convenience?

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Monday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is "very obsolete" and that the United States bears too much of a financial burden in its participation in the alliance.

"NATO is obsolete. We're spending too much money on NATO," Mr. Trump said on "Fox ...

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that "we don't need the empire to give us any presents."

The deadly Easter Sunday attack by a suicide bomber in Pakistan has sent fears soaring of an expanding war on Christianity globally, even as the radical Islamic group behind the strike warned that more assaults on believers were in the works.

Islamic State terrorists have taken to social media to tell the West that the March 22 attacks in Brussels are just the beginning of waves of violence that will strike more targets in Europe and the United States.

The messages were produced by the Islamic State's media company, Al-Wafa, which ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is criticizing Russia for skipping a global nuclear security summit in Washington.

More than 50 countries and international organizations are attending the summit later this week near the White House. The goal is to accelerate global efforts to secure nuclear materials and prevent nuclear ...

After months of condemning Russia's military incursion into Syria as merely propping up a brutal regime, the Pentagon conceded on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin's air force has begun to strike the Islamic State terrorist army.

The Pentagon for months has accused Moscow of being disingenuous by saying it was ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Pentagon will be deploying an armored brigade combat team to Eastern Europe next February as part of the ongoing effort to rotate troops in and out of the region to reassure allies worried about threats from an increasingly aggressive Russia.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Still reeling from attacks in Brussels and Paris, world leaders are wrestling this week with the chilling prospect of the Islamic State group or other extremists unleashing a nuclear attack on a major Western city.

Preventing terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials is the central focus as President ...

Donald Trump vows to “knock the hell out of” the Islamic State and has talked about bringing back waterboarding. His chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz, promises to “carpet bomb” the Islamic State until the sand glows.

Diplomats say Erdogan’s increasingly aggressive and undemocratic behavior in Turkey, plus what they describe as his mercurial role in the conflict in neighboring Syria, have diminished his standing in the Obama administration.

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»Photos of the Day: March 2930/03/16 10:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. In photos chosen Tuesday by Wall Street Journal editors, the Vietnam War is remembered, oil is cleaned up in Taiwan, children play at the Greek-Macedonian border and more.

»Today's Headlines and Commentary29/03/16 18:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Lawfare - Hard National Security Choices. Last night, the Justice Department announced that it had withdrawn its legal effort to compel Apple to assist in the San Bernardino investigation . The FBI had fo...

»Headlines - 2:28 PM 3/28/201628/03/16 16:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from News Reviews and Opinions. March 28, 2016 Voice of America: A look at the best news photos from around the world. CIA Director Visited Moscow to Discuss Syria Voice of America U.S. Central Intelligenc...

»Headlines - 9:37 AM 3/28/201628/03/16 09:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from NEWS: The World and Global Security Review. Pakistanis hunt militants behind blast that killed at least 70 | Reuters Blast at a Crowded Park in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills Dozens - The New York Times How Belgi...

»Headlines - 10:30 AM 3/27/201627/03/16 10:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from NEWS: The World and Global Security Review. NEWS: The World and Global Security Review: Headlines - 9:30 AM 3/27/2016: Syrian Troops Said to Recapture Historic Palmyra From ISIS - The New York Times NEWS: ...